Solomon's Throne

by Jennings Wright

  They turned and edged along the side of the water, not close enough to be on the slippery rocks. After several hundred feet the rocky shoreline began to give way to trees and scrub, and the ground was firm but not rock. Further along, the river turned to their left, and the sound of the falls was diminished to a distant purr. Ahead the river turned again to the right.

  “Maybe after that curve,” Gideon pointed. “If it’s this narrow up there, and we can get far enough from the falls to feel like we won’t be swept over, we can give it a try.”

  They trudged on, growing sticky in the humid, still river bed. The bugs were biting their exposed skin, and their packs began to grow heavier.

  “Our shoes are going to be wet going back,” Rei said, to no one in particular. “But I’m not going in there barefoot.”

  The water in the river was moving and seemed fresh, but the color was dark from the shadows and the dark soil and pebbles that made up the bottom. Rei had visions of leeches and crawfish and all sort of creatures, and was regretting her vote to cross the river rather than go down the falls to the tracks.

  They rounded the next bend, and the water in the river was only fifty feet wide. It was obvious where the high water mark was in monsoon season, but for now the water lazily moved downstream, and a crossing looked promising. Gideon took off his backpack and set it on the ground. He went into the woods, and came out with a brown, dry branch about five feet long.

  “I’ll go in, see how deep it is and how strong the current is. If it’s not deep, I don’t think we have anything to worry about. If it’s deep… Well, sometimes there can be a strong current along a river’s bottom. So we’ll see.”

  “Be careful!” Rei said, and she kissed him quickly.

  “Yep,” he said, and he walked to the edge of the water. The bank was muddy, and his shoes sunk in, making a disgusting sucking sound. He grimaced and started poking the water in front of him, judging depth. He took his first couple of steps in the river, barely deep enough to cover his shoes. He poked and prodded, stepped, and repeated. Slowly the water level rose up his pants, and then over his belt. On the next poke of the stick the entire thing disappeared.

  Rei shouted, “Did it get really deep?”

  Gideon shook his head. “No, I can probably still stand. Barely. The stick is shorter than I am, and I can touch the bottom with it. It might be over your head, though.”

  “You gonna swim, or try to walk?” Mac called.

  “I’m guessing five and half feet, so it would be chin deep, but I could stand. It’s the step after that I’m concerned about. If it gets any deeper, I’ll have to swim.” He took the step, and plunged down until the water covered his shoulders.

  “That takes care of the bath problem,” muttered Rei.

  “I’m ok. And it doesn’t feel like much of a current down there—my feet are solid,” Gideon yelled over his shoulder. They saw him feel under the water with the stick, and then take another step, which brought him to chest level water. He quickly poked and walked until he was on the far bank.

  “We’ll be soaked, but we can do it. I’ll come back and get my pack, and we can all cross.” He made his way quickly back along the same line, and stood dripping in front of them.

  “We’re going to have to hold the packs over our heads though… I’ll take mine across, set it down, and come back. Mac, you’ll have to toss me yours and Rei’s, and I’ll take them across, then we’ll span the deep part and make sure Rei gets across ok.”

  “Got it,” Mac said. Rei nodded and swung her backpack in front of her.

  They made it across without the backpacks getting wet. The same couldn’t be said for Rei’s hair, but all things considered she was happy. And much cleaner than before.

  “Thank God, no creatures!” she said happily, after inspecting her legs for leeches.

  They trekked back to the falls, and began to angle through the trees rimming the side of the water, to come out at the topmost of the tiered ledges. With the water flow light, they could safely stand out on the ledge, and from there could not see the railroad track. They hoped that meant that no one could see them, as they doubted tourists were supposed to hike the falls. And they certainly didn’t want to make tracking easy for the monks.

  Standing on the rock, they could see that, while water went down only the far side now, in monsoon season it would also cross the rock and cascade to the next tier. As Rei studied the area, she saw that the seasonal torrent of water had gouged the surface of the rock and made channels where none had originally existed. Near the rock face, she saw that the eons of flooding water had carved large gaps on either side of a funny shaped rock.

  “Hey Gid, what does this look like from over there?” She pointed to the rock sticking up like a lone tooth.

  Gideon studied it, moved a step to either side, and motioned Mac over. They talked for a moment, which Rei couldn’t hear with the falling water beside her. They both crouched down into a squatting position. At almost the same moment they saw it. From one particular angle, the rock was pointed to the sky, and two flat slabs of rock jutted out the rear to meet the rock face.

  “That’s it!” Gideon yelled. The men rushed over to her.

  “Now what?” Mac asked.

  “Now we ‘part the curtain’. We have to go west, which is towards the waterfall. And go behind the water…” Rei said.

  “You know, that sounded a lot easier when we were sitting at Mrs. Pandey’s,” Gideon grumbled, looking down at the long, long drop.

  “Agreed,” Rei said, trying not to look down.

  Mac led the way, staying close to the rock face and away from the edge as long as possible. Rei, in the middle, could hear him grumbling, but she couldn’t make out the words. She was pretty sure, though, that she shared his sentiments… This is nuts.

  As they approached the waterfall, which even in the dry season was strong enough to sweep them all away, Mac noticed that the east side of it was diminished because of an angled overhang that seemed to direct the water more to the west side of the rush. He carefully got down on one knee and watched the water, then reached his hand out and through the flow.

  “Hey! There really is a space behind here. I can’t feel the back, so it should be deep enough to stand in… and the flow isn’t very strong here. I’m going to step through it…” Mac said.

  “Wait a sec,” Gideon said. “We need some kind of safety system. I’m kicking myself for not bringing any rope.”

  “I think if I just take a quick step I’ll be through it. Let’s do this.” He was psyching himself up. “I’ll clip all the straps together on my backpack. I think you can hold that handle there above the pocket, and if I slip… well, I hope we don’t both go over.” He gave a weak smile.

  “Don’t even say it!” Rei said. She tried again not to look down.

  “Let’s do it,” Gideon said. Mac snapped all the clips across his chest and waist on the backpack, and tightened the straps. Neither he nor Gideon thought there was much chance of stopping a fall if the water took him, but it felt better doing something, and certainly was better for Rei.

  “Here goes…” Mac said, standing as close to the water as he could. Then he stepped through it.

  “Hey!” he called. “It’s a big space in here! The edge is right behind the water—you barely feel it when you go through.”

  The Quinns stared at the water, hearing his voice but seeing nothing.

  “Wow,” breathed Rei. “That’s amazing. Who’s next?”

  “You go next. Do the same thing with your backpack that Mac did, and step quick. He’ll be there to pull you in. Then I’ll go.”

  “Who’s holding you?” Rei asked, concerned.

  “Y’all will just have to grab me from in there,” he said. “Should be ok. I’ll get there, I promise.”

  “You’d better,” Rei said. She secured all her buckles and straps, and followed Mac’s footsteps to the edge of the waterfall. “Hey Mac! I’m heading through! On three…”
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  “Gotcha!” came the reply.

  Rei took a deep breath. “One… Two… Three!” She stepped. Mac was right, she had barely felt the water before she was safely inside the large hollow in the rock.

  ”I’m OK!” she called to Gideon.

  “Thank God! Ok, here I come… Ready. Set. Go!” He stepped through into the waiting grasps of both Rei and Mac. “I don’t know how we’ll get out of here, and I sure as hell don’t know how we’ll ever get a treasure out… But that was awesome!”

  The light was very dim inside the cave, and they all broke out their flashlights.

  “There’s an X somewhere. And we ‘go behind’ it. So either there’s some kind of opening already, or we do some demo,” Rei said.

  “I hope it’s not a lot of demo… I left my jack hammer in the truck,” Gideon said.

  The three spread out along the back wall and began looking. Gideon found the mark on the curving left wall.

  “Here! Got it!” he said.

  “Any secret button to open a door?” Mac asked.

  “Unfortunately no…” Gideon said. “But maybe…” He was running his hands along the uneven rock that made up the back of the cavity. “I think there’s a narrow opening, here.” He shined his flashlight behind a rock that jutted out about a foot.

  Rei joined her flashlight to his, and they saw that it was, indeed, a very narrow opening.

  “Can we fit through there?” she asked.

  “Father Eduardo did it,” Gideon said. “We’ll have to take the backpacks off, and definitely suck in some air. Rei, I think you’re going to have to be the trail blazer on this one.”

  “I wish we had those head lamp things… It’s kinda creepy in there,” she said, but she removed her backpack and handed it to her husband. “Can we tie a string around my waist so you can pull me out?” she joked.

  “I wish,” Gideon said. “I’ll hold your hand on this side, and you can shine the light with the other hand. Hopefully it’s not far til it opens out…”

  “And hopefully no animals are living in there,” Mac muttered, but low enough so Rei couldn’t hear him.

  Rei turned sideways, and held out the flashlight in her right hand so it illuminated her path. She reached back with her left hand and grabbed Gideon’s. She gave it a squeeze. “I’m ok, honey. How lost can I get?”

  Gideon, who knew she got lost in the Tube on a regular basis, refrained from comment.

  Rei started to shuffle her feet, moving slowly sideways. The passage was so narrow she couldn’t bend her knees more than a couple of inches, but she didn’t touch either side. She tried not to think of MRI machines.

  “I think y’all can make it—it’ll be tight, but it should be ok,” she called back.

  “You’re about three feet in,” Mac answered. “Can you see anything in front of you yet?”

  “Hang on… Yes! It opens up.” She turned back to the crevice and shined her light back to Gideon. “Five feet or so. It’s not too bad.”

  “What’s there?” Gideon asked.

  Rei turned and swept her flashlight slowly around her. The cave was much larger than the hollow behind the waterfall. Stalactites hung from the ceiling, and she could hear a faint drip drip of water somewhere. The roof of the space was at least twenty feet high.

  “It’s a big cave!” she answered. “Come on!”

  Gideon tossed in the backpacks, and Rei scooted in to get them. She bent sideways, caught the handles on the top, and dragged them out into the open. She leaned them all against the interior wall. When they were out of the passageway, Gideon started through. His chest and back slid along the walls, and there were a few moments of claustrophobia, but then he was out on the other side.

  “Your turn, Mac!” He shined the light and saw the captain, who was older, taller and bigger, barely squeezing through the narrow space.

  “Just so you know, this sucks!” Mac said in a tight voice. Soon he, too, was in the cave, and they all swung their flashlights around, looking for a tunnel.

  CHAPTER TWENTY-SIX

  They found the tunnel jutting off to the left, heading further into the hill. Although it was slight, there was a downward angle to the floor, and they knew that they were descending behind the falls. Every fifty feet or so they saw another of Father Eduardo’s marks. They remembered the Jesuit’s admonition about getting lost and they were very glad for those Xs.

  “I’m hungry,” Rei finally said. With all the adrenaline and excitement earlier, she hadn’t thought about food, but now she realized that they hadn’t eaten in at least seven hours.

  “Me too,” Mac said. “And we need to keep to a regular eating schedule. In here it would be easy to lose track of days and times, with no natural light.”

  They sat down in the narrow tunnel, all of them leaning against the wall, and broke out their lunch. Fresh bananas. Nut paste. Water.

  “Not very exciting,” Rei said.

  “Nope, but better than it’ll be in a couple of days when the fruit’s gone,” Gideon said. Rei grunted.

  “My watch has date and time, in twenty-four hour mode. We need to eat and sleep as best we can with the outside world,” Mac said. “It’s two o’clock now. Should we go another two or three hours and call it a day?”

  “Probably start looking for a good place to set up after two. I’d rather not set up camp in one of these tunnels, if we can find a bigger cave. Just feels like a claustrophobic place to sleep,” Gideon said.

  In fact, the tunnel was warm and dry. While completely dark when their flashlights were off, the combined light of the three LEDs were enough to illuminate the path, and they hadn’t encountered any other overly narrow or overly large areas. They hadn’t yet encountered water, either, which was a cause for some concern, but they had a sense the tunnel system meandered back and forth inside the hill, which meant that they would come back to an area close to the falls before too long.

  By the end of two hours, they were all exhausted. The walked another forty minutes before finding a small cave off the main tunnel. It was a dead end, but the size of a hotel room, so they used it for just that purpose.

  “What about a latrine?” Rei asked. They had found some outcroppings of rock along the way, but there wasn’t anywhere in the cave Rei wanted to use as an outhouse.

  “I’ll scout it out after we get set up,” Mac said.

  They got their sleeping bags fluffed up, and their dinner rations out. Mac took a flashlight and his knife, and left. Rei and Gideon sat side by side, leaning against the wall, his arm around her shoulders.

  “I’m beat,” he said.

  “My butt’s sore from all that climbing. And I’m a little worried about water…” Rei said.

  “We have enough for now. Hopefully we’ll find something tomorrow.” He kissed the top of her head. “Even though the floor is rock, I think I’m going to sleep very well.”

  “Me too,” Rei said, and leaned her head back. She’d just started to doze when she heard Mac come back in.

  “Good news, bad news,” he said.

  The Quinns stared at him.

  “Good news, there’s a good place for the privy just around the next bend, and more good news, I can hear water somewhere ahead.”

  “And the bad news?” Rei asked.

  “There are three tunnels up there, and I don’t see another mark.”

  They all slept soundly, falling asleep not long after eight o’clock after telling funny stories about their childhoods. Rei woke up in the middle of the night and had to wake Gideon to accompany her to their latrine, but otherwise, they slept surprisingly well for being on solid rock, and woke refreshed. The realization of a day without coffee was depressing, but they ate a quick breakfast, brushed their teeth from the bottled water, and moved on to the cave Mac had found the night before.

  “I didn’t look everywhere, obviously, but I didn’t see a mark at the mouth of any of the tunnels. This one in the middle is the one where you can hear water. I say we go down
that one first for the water, even if we don’t think that’s the one the priest meant.”

  “I agree,” said Gideon. “We drank a lot yesterday with all that hiking, and we lost a lot of fluid sweating out there by the river. We’ll mark this one, find the water, and come back to look for the X. I can’t believe Father Eduardo would leave us hanging… so it must be somewhere. We just have to uncover it.”

  Gideon opened his backpack and removed a glow stick, which he snapped. The green glow made his face ghastly. He took his knife and made a hole in the plastic, and marked the wall at the entrance to the tunnel with the fluid. Every few feet he made another mark. The sound of the water got nearer, and they sped up without realizing it. Their flashlights shone ahead on an open space, and Mac’s long legs carried him ahead of the other two. He was looking straight in front of him, when his right foot stepped down on nothing but space.

  He flailed his arms and tried to throw himself backwards, but he knew he was going to fall. His left foot slipped out from under him and he started to go down, when he felt a hand grab his backpack. He hadn’t buckled all the snaps when he put it on, but the one across his chest had helped balance it, so he knew that one was tight. The one at his waist was unhooked, and he could feel his arms starting to slip out. He crossed them over his chest and held the straps tightly. He could hear Gideon groaning with the effort of hauling him back.

  “Keep holding my belt, Rei!” he heard Gideon yell, and Rei let out a scream of effort at holding the weight and inertia of the two much larger men. He was facing away from the wall, so there was nothing he could do to help himself, other than keep holding the straps.

  “I got you!” Gideon yelled to Mac as he strained with the one handed grip on the backpack. The pack kept catching on the lip of the abyss. He was lying on his belly, one knee bent around a rock protruding from the floor, Rei trying to hold him by his belt with her right hand and holding another rock with her left. He had very little leverage, but he could feel the adrenaline coursing through him.